Around the wider world of golf: Mark Calcavecchia got his first Champions Tour win since 2015 at the Boca Raton Championship; Ben Taylor won the Club Colombia Championship on the Web.com Tour; Kiradech Aphibarnrat won the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth, co-sponsored by the European, Australasian and Asian Tours; Jiyai Shin won the ActewAGL Canberra Classic (her 50th career win!) on the LET; and Kevin Streelman and his amateur partner, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, won the team division of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Yes, the Wizard worked his magic at the mystical Pebble Beach event and won a lot more than Chocolate Frogs -- in either the green or red wrappers, complete with Wizard Trading Cards -- or Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Jelly Beans, or any of the other candy treats mentioned in J.K.Rowland's books. (I don't even want to think about those nasty Cockroach Clusters! UGH!) And I suppose Ted is tired of the "Wizard" nickname he picked up simply because he shares Harry's surname.
But it doesn't change the fact that the name suited him over the weekend, and especially on Sunday. He casually shot -3 on his first seven holes, then parred in on his way to a three-shot win. And he was perfect getting up and down, which is no small thing around Pebble. For a player who hasn't really been in the heat of battle for several years while recovering from ankle surgery AND swing changes, that is a truly magical feat.
And Ted knew it. You could hear the emotion in his voice as Peter Kostis interviewed him on the 18th green. It's true that he had experience to draw on -- in case you didn't hear, Ted confirmed to a reporter that he had indeed won around 60 events if you counted all the two- and three-day mini-tour events -- but he certainly didn't have that kind of confidence in his conditioning yet. He said that his ankle still didn't feel quite right.
But it felt good enough to post this win. And with the two-year exemption he now has, I'd be willing to bet the Wizard will find a few spells left in that magic putter of his. Hey, he conjured up this Limerick Summary, didn't he?
Yes, Pebble can cast quite a spell—The photo came from this page at golfweek.com.
But the Wizard beguiled old Carmel!
Potter needed no wand
Save his putter, which calmed
All the demons and served him quite well.
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